U.S. Navy says they will have weaponized lasers in use by 2020

According to a statement from the US Navy, the agency will soon begin using high-energy laser weapons that can destroy aircraft and small boats. The weapons are being built with $150 million in taxpayer money and according to a report from V3, the contract could eventually be worth up to $942.8 million and handled by Lockheed Martin. The technology is called High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance (HELIOS). Lockheed has said that they plan to have these weaponized lasers in use by 2020.

“Navy technicians will integrate the laser and its control systems with the ship’s power, cooling, and battle management systems. That’s an important step – an earlier Navy LAWS system was never integrated with shipboard systems on the USS Ponce for testing,”according to IEEE Spectrum.

The HELIOS is just the first stage of the US military’s Surface Navy Laser Weapon System program, which was made public in March last year.